“Don’t make me put out the flames of our burning planet with my tears”: climate grief and ecoanxiety

Social work is uniquely positioned as a profession concerned with people in their environments, social justice, the intersection of mental and physical health, food insecurity, poverty, inequity, racism, and the ongoing impact of trauma and traumatic events. As a profession we recognize growing eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, and climate grief in response to escalating climate change, global warming, environmental disasters, and the destruction of finite resources. People, young people especially, are feeling more hopeless, overwhelmed, and helpless in the face of daily alerts about the state of the planet. It is becoming harder to simultaneously hold space for grief and hope, or indeed to know what to do with intense feelings and worries. Anxiety and depression in young people are an epidemic and climate grief has a significant role to play in the growth of mental health concerns. Climate grief, much like grief in general, is not well understood, nor is it often addressed in social work education, clinical practice or in grief groups dealing primarily with individual losses while many in attendance may simultaneously be carrying mourning for a home that is in dire straits. The calls for grief activism, resilience, action, and hope can lead to less sense of personal, or collective power, and not more, as people struggle to find ways to contribute to the fight to halt the speeding train of climate change and global warming. Pro-environmental behaviors are gaining acceptance and increasingly being adopted, following role models, embracing minimalism and simplicity, being more mindful of veganism and vegetarianism, the tiny home movement, reducing reliance on coal and oil, sustainability efforts, reaffirming Indigenous worldviews and ways of being, managing pollution and carbon emissions, a return to bartering, creating, upcycling, reusing, and recycling all help. Accelerated efforts to reforest, consume energy mindfully, substitute green products, promote electric vehicles, and push back against rampant consumerism and untethered capitalism have made inroads. However, even these seem inadequate when they are not taken up by large segments of the population or are directly scoffed at by climate change deniers. As a result, critical social work, environmental social work, eco-social work and those skilled in grief and bereavement work have attempted to push back against an individualistic worldview that allows for the ongoing destruction of our home. Social work can teach about grief, loss, ritual, and community in ways that address the growing despair we are all feeling. This talk will outline climate grief and ecoanxiety and detail ways we as social workers can support, educate, and inform ourselves, our colleagues, students, friends, families, and clients. Discussion and problem solving will be welcomed wholeheartedly.

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